HR0191 99TH GENERAL ASSEMBLY

HR0191 LRB099 11067 MST 31458 r

HOUSE RESOLUTION

WHEREAS, The right to vote is one of the most fundamental rights afforded to American citizens; and

WHEREAS, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. proclaimed "The denial of this sacred right is a tragic betrayal of the highest mandates of our democratic traditions and it is democracy turned upside down"; and

WHEREAS, Despite receiving the right to equal protection under the law with the Fourteenth Amendment and the right to vote with the Fifteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution, ratified in 1868 and 1870, respectively, African Americans in the country's southern states were routinely intimidated, harassed, and assaulted when they tried to register to vote; and

WHEREAS, On May 17, 1957, in the Prayer Pilgrimage for Freedom, nearly 25,000 demonstrators gathered at the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, D.C. to urge the federal government to stand by the U.S. Supreme Court's 1954 Brown vs. Board of Education decision declaring segregation in public schools to be unconstitutional; it was at the Prayer Pilgrimage for Freedom that a young civil rights leader, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., called for voting rights for African Americans in his Give Us The Ballot speech, launching the issue to national attention and introducing Dr. King as the pre-eminent national leader of the civil rights movement; and

WHEREAS, While the federal Civil Rights Act of 1964 ended segregation in public places and ended discrimination on the job, it did not abolish "voter qualification" and thus did not curb the use of literacy tests, poll taxes, economic retaliation, repression from authorities, and physical violence against African-American voters; and

WHEREAS, In 1964, many demonstrations were held demanding voting rights for African Americans, often accompanied by considerable violence against non-violent protesters, bringing renewed attention to the issue of the constitutionally guaranteed right to vote; and

WHEREAS, On February 18, 1965, while participating in a peaceful voting rights march in Marion, Alabama, Jimmie Lee Jackson, an unarmed voting-rights protestor, was beaten by Alabama state troopers and fatally shot by a state trooper; the tragedy inspired a march from Selma to Montgomery, Alabama to bring the issue of voting rights to Governor George Wallace's front door; and

WHEREAS, On March 7, 1965, a peaceful demonstrators attempted to march from Selma to Montgomery, Alabama, only for participants to be attacked at the Edmund Pettus Bridge by state troopers with billy clubs and tear gas; and

WHEREAS, On March 9, 1965, after a second march attempt, civil rights activist James Reeb, a white Unitarian minister from Boston who had come to Selma with many other clergy and sympathizers from around the country, was beaten to death, bringing national calls for voting rights and inspiring President Lyndon B. Johnson to take action; and

WHEREAS, President Johnson called for the Voting Rights Act in front of a joint session of Congress on March 15, 1965, invoking the words of the protestors as he declared, "We shall overcome"; and

WHEREAS, Congressman John Lewis of Georgia's 5th Congressional district was pivotal in the success of the Civil Rights Movement and continues to lead this country as a member of the United States House of Representatives; and

WHEREAS, The Voting Rights Act of 1965 was introduced in the U.S. Senate as S.1564 by Republican Sen. Everett Dirksen of Illinois and Democratic Sen. Mike Mansfield of Montana on March 17, 1965; and

WHEREAS, On March 21, 1965, protected by 2,000 soldiers of the U.S. Army, 1,900 members of the Alabama National Guard under federal command, and FBI agents and federal marshals, 8,000 people began the 54-mile journey along U.S. Route 80 from Selma to Montgomery; and

WHEREAS, On March 25, 1965, 25,000 people completed the march at the steps of the Alabama State Capitol Building; and

WHEREAS, The Voting Rights Act of 1965 passed the U.S. Senate on May 26, 1965, and passed the House of Representatives on July 9, 1965, and was signed into law by President Johnson on August 6, 1965; and

WHEREAS, The fight for civil rights continues throughout the nation today; therefore, be it

RESOLVED, BY THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES OF THE NINETY-NINTH GENERAL ASSEMBLY OF THE STATE OF ILLINOIS, that we recognize the 50th Anniversary of the Voting Rights Act of 1965 on August 6, 2015; and be it further

RESOLVED, That the State of Illinois honors all of the individuals and organizations that helped fight for and pass this legislation, as well as the memories of those who died in peaceful protests for their right to vote.